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Friday, March 20, 2015

2015 Crystal Brush Part 1

Well, I have finally made it out to the Crystal Brush competition at Adepticon! Flying with my figures was a bit stressful. I'd brought supplies in case I had to do any repair, but they made the trip without any issues. So far I've sat in on two seminars, two brush blending and an introduction to sculpting with green stuff. Very interesting to see the two brush blending approach, a nice quick way to achieve good blends. It definitely takes some practice, my first attempt was a mess. But I will definitely keep playing around with it and hopefully work it into my routine (along with all the stuff I already do).

I wanted to put out a quick reminder that tomorrow (Saturday) around noon or 1 Chicago time, they will be posting all of the photos on Cool Mini or Not for public voting. If you have a Cool Mini account (they're free) you can vote on all the entries. Voting should be open for at least 12 hours, so if you have the time please log in and vote! Hopefully we won't have to many people trying to game the system, but the more honest votes (ie rating things the way you normally would in the CMON gallery) the better. I've got my four pieces: Saxon Raider (Historical Single), Knight of the Holy Sepulchre (Historical Vehicle/Mounted), Young Arthur (Fantasy Single, and the Officer of the Guide (Large Scale). There are also a bunch of regulars on the CMON forum so plenty of stuff to vote on. Plus you'll see some really cool stuff!

I've taken a few pictures and I thought I'd share some of the competition. These are some of my favorite entries, but far from everything. I will take and most more pictures in following updates on this blog. There are other really neat pieces, but I'm using my phone camera so not all of the photos were good enough. You will definitely want to check the official photos when the voting goes online, because even my 'good' pictures don't do the colors and figures justice. Anyway, here's a quick peek at some of the entries...

There were a couple pieces from the Black Sailor's kickstarter. I believe these are both box art and were ineligible to compete, still really neat to see.

And there was also a Black Sailor's diorama (this is in the competition) that is incredibly well done. Definitely a contender for a top three finish overall. It's double sided with another figure on the far side of the wall. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a good picture of it, so be sure to check it out when they post the official photos tomorrow.

Fantastic scratch built space marine from (I believe) Kirill Kanaex (Yellow One). The piece is probably 150 or 200mm scale but the detail is amazing. The face also looks a lot like Daniel Craig for whatever reason. They're still excepting entries, but this has to be a favorite for overall winner.

Here are a couple Chibi figures. The style really isn't my thing and I thought it would be a rather weak category, but there are some really well done entries.

Diorama from Matt DiPietro. Not a great shot of the figure, but in my opinion the scene is more the star than the figure.

Justin McCoy's version of the Remora kit from Industria Mechanika. The main ship is the regular kit, but he created quite a few pieces for the deck.

Yeah, my pictures don't do them justice. I think the first couple are up on P&P but the diorama is new. I wish I could get better photos (and angles) but I imagine there will be some nice pictures online after the competition.